


Don't Play Chess with Albus Dumbledore

by Feathersmeanfreedom



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Gen, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Morally Ambiguous Character, Non-Graphic Violence, October 31 1981, Werewolf Remus Lupin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:47:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24282319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feathersmeanfreedom/pseuds/Feathersmeanfreedom
Summary: Dumbledore collects people, too.
Relationships: Albus Dumbledore & Remus Lupin, Hope Lupin/Lyall Lupin
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	Don't Play Chess with Albus Dumbledore

Remus Lupin remembers the day his Hogwarts letter came. He remembers the excitement and the thrill at being able to have what his Dad had, growing up. He remembers the stories about Hogwarts that had slowly grown less and less frequent as his parents did not want to admit that he would never have that chance.

He remembers the argument, too.

“Lyall, dear, haven’t you always said Hogwarts was where you found yourself?” Hope asks. They’re sitting at the kitchen table, having one last cup of tea. Remus himself isn’t even supposed to be awake, but the full moon is in a few days and he couldn’t sleep.

“It was.” His voice is the same tone as it was when his father admitted it was his fault he was bitten. This was the voice of a broken man. “It was, dear…”

“Then why don’t you want your son to have the same opportunity?”

Lyall doesn’t respond for a long time, and paper crinkles. On the table before them, there are two letters. One is the standard Hogwarts letter, signed by the loopy handwriting of Professor McGonagal. But the other is the letter signed by Headmaster Dumbledore, and explains to his parents the provisions that will be made for Remus’ special circumstances.

According to the letter, the Herbology teacher has allowed for the use of her prized Whomping Willow as a guard, although she doesn't know what it is guarding. A tunnel leading to a removed safe house of sorts has already been built, and Remus can make use of it for his monthly transformations. The healer known as Madam Pomfrey is the finest healer in the country, and well equipped to take care of werewolf wounds.

All is ready for his First Year at Hogwarts, provided his parents accept.

“It’s all I want,” Lyall responds. “That’s all I want for him.”

“Then it’s settled—Remus will attend Hogwarts in the fall.”

He smiles to himself, pleased that his mother has apparently won the argument. 

“I’m just worried,” Lyall admits.

Hope sets down her cup of tea, clearly annoyed that he’s continuing the argument. “About what?”

“Dumbledore is very powerful, my dear.”

“You’ve said. He would have to be a powerful wizard to run a school like that.”

“No, beyond Hogwarts.” Lyall takes a deep breath, perhaps to steady himself. “We can’t afford to keep trying short term solutions. And both of us have to work, so we can’t homeschool him. We can’t even send him to a Muggle school without people getting suspicious.”

The optimism in Hope’s voice starts to fade. “What are you saying?”

“I can’t say for sure, and I can’t say why, but I think there’s a game here.” Lyall says it quietly, like he doesn’t dare breathe it in fear of it coming true.

“How can you even say that? He was over for tea and he seemed so genuine!”

“I know. I don’t want to believe it. But think about it. Why now? Why Remus? Surely there are other werewolf children who deserve an education at Hogwarts,” Lyall says. For the first time tonight, he doesn’t sound like he’s just being contrary.

Neither of them speak for a long time. “I think you’re right. But I also think we’d be foolish not to.”

“I think so, too.”

There is an uncomfortable silence that follows. And though Remus does go to Hogwarts in the fall, he can’t shake the feeling that it’s all too good to be true. The feeling only grows stronger when he befriends a mousy boy with a wild sense of humor, a disgraced pureblood with a roaring temper, or a boy with glasses who somehow brings the four of them together.

**  
Remus remembers the conversation between his parents when Dumbledore pulls each of his friends aside and asks if they’d be interested in fighting in the coming war.

There’s not a single person at Hogwarts who cannot sense the war that is brewing. It is in the way the most supremacy-minded of the students sneer at the Muggle borns, half bloods, and any of the other Purebloods who support them. How Muggle borns start disappearing. How even the portraits seem to pick up on the tension.

Many of them can see that Dumbledore has a plan. They can see it in how he calls Alice, Frank, and Kinsley into his office before they graduate. And then others in the years above them, in other houses.

When in their 7th year, James is called to his office and returns with bright eyes and a set to his jaw Remus has only ever seen when he’s playing Quidditch. He refuses to tell them anything. Then Sirius, Peter, Lily, Marlene, and Mary all talk to Dumbledore as well. By then, he knows what’s happening. Finally, it’s his turn. 

He sits because it was offered, and takes a lemon drop because it’s polite, but Remus doesn't let him start with his speech.

He’ll be damned if he lets Dumbledore think his agreement had anything to do with his sales pitch. 

“Why did you let me come to Hogwarts, sir?” Remus has never had the courage to ask this question, and has never wanted the answer. 

“Your situation was tragic, indeed. But I did not think it was a reason to withhold your education.” He says it in that half-truthful way of his that’s designed to make other people think it’s an answer. He tells him what Remus desperately wants to hear.

“Sir, there are no other werewolves at Hogwarts.” Now, Remus doesn’t know for sure if it was true until the moment he says it, but the gleam in Dumbledore’s eyes fades, just a little. And Remus knows he’s right.

“You’re correct.” The gleam returns, but this time, it’s a taunt. Like Dumbledore wants to see where he’ll take it.

And damn it, he hasn’t really gotten that far. He knows Dumbledore had a purpose in bringing him to Hogwarts.

“You wanted me to be loyal to wizards, didn’t you? You knew something like this would come up.” A part of Remus isn’t surprised. It’s also not surprising it worked.

“In Grindelwald's day, he had a number of people who were loyal to him. Some of them were human, some of them weren’t.” Dumbledore fiddles absently with his gnarled wand. Privately, Remus wonders how much it pains him to admit to reveal his plan.

“You’re worried the same thing might be happening? With this Voldemort person?” Remus’ breath catches. “Does he have magical creatures?”

“Not to my knowledge.” A strong dose of self-assurance fills his expression. “And it is quite a lot of knowledge.”

“But you want to keep it that way?” Remus guesses.

“It would be ideal,” Dumbledore admits. “As strong as wizards are, we have created a lot of resentment among magical creatures.”

And if that wasn’t true. Even him, as sheltered as he can be at Hogwarts, knows a large percentage of his classmates thinks creatures like him should be put down. He is acutely aware of how lucky he was that his parents didn’t register him as a werewolf. He knows that the restrictions on werewolves have gotten stronger each year, and he is risking everything by being at Hogwarts. 

And he knows that if he didn’t have his friends who supported him, he would side with anyone who could promise a semblance of equality. Damn them all to hell.

“I won’t just be fighting, will I?”

“It is your choice, of course, but I believe there will come a time when it would be most useful for you to go on diplomatic missions,” Dumbledore says. “That time may never come.”

Bullshit. They both know it will. 

Because if Dumbledore is putting together an army, then he doesn’t think the Ministry can handle it. He thinks Voldemort is more powerful than they realize.

“Diplomatic missions to werewolves? Are there really that many of us for it to matter?” Remus asks. 

“Some have evaded the Ministry’s misplaced efforts to contain them and formed their own communities. And if they sided with Voldemort, then we would have cause to be worried,” Dumbledore admits.

“They have?” This is certainly the first Remus has heard about it. For the first time, he wonders how much of his life is a manipulation.

Dumbledore nods. “They have hidden themselves from even my eyes.”

Not his, is something he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say that werewolves will respond better to another werewolf, even if he’s been raised alongside wizards.

“And the other magical creatures?” Remus asks. “You’ll have people trying to recruit them, too?”

“There’s no need to concern yourself with that, Mr. Lupin.” Dumbledore levels him with a solemn look. “You only need to decide if you will join.”

Goddamn him. “I will.”

**

The moment Dumbledore’s Patronus shows up, he knows something is wrong. He knows it like he knows the diplomatic effort to find a group of werewolves and convince them to fight against Voldemort doesn’t matter anymore. He Apparates from the forest without even waiting to hear what the Patronus has to say.

Somehow, he ends up outside the Hog’s Head and goes through Aberforth’s secret passage into Hogwarts. He’s not sure what he says to Aberforth, and he quite frankly, doesn’t care. He runs straight into McGonagall, which he thinks is good because he didn’t have a plan.

“Dumbledore sent a Patronus.” He really can’t say what state he’s in, but it has McGonagall leading him to her office without a single word. 

He’s spent enough time in this office to confidently say that nothing’s changed. The large oak desk is still organized, the photos on the wall are in the same order, and the fireplace is as warm as it ever was. But even still, he knows something has changed.

Professor McGonagall takes a seat behind her desk, bracing herself for whatever is to come. And Remus has never known her to be speechless.

Remus freezes. “What is it?” 

“There was an attack,” she says slowly, so goddamn gently his heart stops.

“James and Lily…” He can’t make himself say it. Can’t bear to look up at her.

“He found them. Voldemort killed them both.”

“No…” It’s hardly a breath. They couldn't be...

Lily, who was the brightest of them all. James, who kept them all together in this hell of a world. He pictures Alice and Frank Longbottom, tortured beyond sanity. 

The teacup falls from McGonagall’s hands and shatters on the floor. Neither of them notice it. His voice is a lot calmer than he feels, and he knows that like the teacup, he will not return from this. “I think you should explain what happened, Professor.” 

Professor McGonagall, the strongest person he knows, starts crying.

The door opens behind him, and Dumbledore enters, “Minerva...Oh, Mr. Lupin.” The damned man has the nerve to look pleased to see him. “I see you got my Patronus.”

Remus barely refrains himself from hexing him. Or maybe punching him would be more suitable to the rage building up in him. But either way, it’s a fucking close call. He dares to ask, in a voice that will never match the cold anger of Lily’s, but he thinks it comes rather close to it. “What...what happened?”

McGonagall’s voice is so soft, she should be talking about something else—anything else. “Voldemort killed Lily and James Potter.”

He can’t breathe. He would prefer to be transformed into a werewolf every goddamn night if it meant his friends are alive. He doesn’t look at either of them. “When?”

He doesn’t even know who he’s asking, but Dumbledore answers. “The night of the 31st.”

He hasn’t been around anyone inclined to carry a calendar, but he knows it’s nowhere near October. The November full moon was a few days ago. On the 13th. “Why am I only hearing of this now?”

Dumbledore spreads his hands peaceably. “We thought it best—”

“Don’t you dare patronize me!” He thinks it would be rather intimidating if his voice didn’t crack. “I deserved to know!”

Even so, both of his old teachers freeze, and he absently recalls it’s the first time they’ve ever heard him raise his voice. He can’t bring himself to care. “Harry...What happened to Harry?”

“Hagrid took him to Lily’s sister’s house,” McGonagall says. And he recognizes the stern tone enough to know she does not approve.

“Why...Sirius would have been with him,” Remus says. There’s more they’re not telling him. And Oh, how he dreads it. “Sirius is his Godfather.”

Remus doesn’t know what they tell him. He honestly doesn’t. He feels that there’s something wrong with it. Something is missing, and he doesn’t know what. Dumbledore forbids him from seeing Sirius, from seeing Harry, from investigating, from interfering in whatever plan the Great Albus Dumbledore has.

The only thing he knows for certain is that the world should have stopped moving October 31, 1981. 

Maybe it did. Still—for some goddamn reason—the planets keep on spinning.

**Author's Note:**

> Dumbledore is an extremely fascinating character to me because despite being on the "good" side, he ends up being extremely morally gray when you looks deeper into his actions. He always appears to have a plan and I was interesting in exploring that.
> 
> I am tentatively marking this as complete, so please let me know if you'd be interested in more.


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